Dark Water
by Evie Reyes
Summary: The Guardians fight to keep Jack alive after a deadly attack from Pitch.
1. Chapter I

******Summary:** The Guardians fight to keep Jack alive after a deadly attack from Pitch.

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_"My soul is full of whispered song;_

_My blindness is my sight;_

_The shadows that I feared so long_

_Are all alive with light."_

_- Cary, Dying Hymn_

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"Death is a debt we all must pay, Jack," Pitch said. "And yours is long overdue."

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Jack challenged. Yet in the corner of his mind, he knew he was in trouble.

Below them, water seethed. They were standing in a shallow river. Icy and treacherous, Jack could already feel it's paralyzing sting swirl wildly around his ankles. At this late hour, the darkness nearly blinded him. There was the moon at least, shining dimly overhead and for that, Jack was grateful.

The Guardians had all believed Pitch had been consumed by his own fear that night they had united against him. He had been extinguished by shadows and darkness. None of them expected for Pitch to return as soon as he had and it caught Jack completely off guard.

"It should." Pitch told him, a grin twisting the corners of his mouth.

Jack met his leer with an equally confident smile. "Sorry to disappoint you then."

It had been the wrong words to say. Pitch lashed out at him, crushing his hands over his shoulders. He whispered softly in his ear, "Obviously, you don't know the true meaning of fear. You were never meant to be involved in that fight. And then you had to meddle in plans that were never meant to involve you. Well now, I'm doing what I should have done long ago," Pitch said, closing the distance between them.

Jack grit his teeth and clamped his own hands over the ones Pitch had latched on him. "Get off me," he warned.

"You're trembling."

"I said GET OFF!" Jack shouted. He swung his staff, sending waves of ice to come crashing at him but Pitch vanished.

A sharp burst of wind swept behind him, causing him to turn his back. The winter spirit was standing in the center of a semi-frozen river. It was January. The Easter Bunny had no reason to be here on Jack's turf unless he had been alerted to come to this specific area, yet there Bunnymund was, standing on a metal bridge constructed far overhead. He sniffed the air, taking in his new surroundings. His boomerangs were already in his grasp. Jack could barely see him between the bridge rails, fused with fresh ice. He must have known Jack was near. He just couldn't see where.

Unfortunately, turning his back would be the last mistake Jack would ever make.

"You shouldn't have dropped your guard."

Before Jack could turn around, his staff was sent flying from his hand. He had been completely disarmed by an unforeseen attack from Pitch, who now held his staff secure in his own grasp.

Jack's wrist was still stinging from having his staff wrested out of his grip. But that pain didn't even compare to what happened next. He was about to call out to Bunnymund — to at least turn his attention toward them — when his voice caught deep inside his throat. Then he took a breath, staggered forward and spit from his mouth a very unfamiliar taste.

Jack stopped moving for a second and bowed his head, watching the substance drip from the corner of his mouth and splatter against his jean and into the river where he still stood.

It was blood.

The icy water and chunks of floating ice licked his ankles. His blood was forming ice crystals on his jeans. He raised his head. All he could see was snow, ice, and winter-stripped trees that reached their brittle arms skyward as if screaming for someone to save them. Behind the ice-fused railings of the metal bridge remained Bunnymund, unaware of the conflict happening so close below him.

Pitch stealthily approached Jack then. "And here I was thinking this battle of ours would have been difficult," he said. "You made it too easy. I'd say you'd be feeling the affects of my poison anytime now."

It was after Pitch spoke that Bunnymund must have overhead the conversation because he immediately drew his attention toward the river. "JACK!"

The first boomerang flew in Pitch's direction with startling accuracy. Nevertheless it missed its target. Pitch had already disappeared.

"I got here as fast as I could once I heard you were here with Pitch. You aren't hurt, are you?" Bunnymund rushed toward Jack then who was still standing in the center of the river, not expecting the scene that awaited him. His gaze dropped.

Jack breathed a sharp, ragged breath. Unable to give a vocal reply, he gave Bunnymund a look as if to say, "_What the hell do you think?" _before stumbling forward.

He was not okay. They both knew that.

Impaled through his stomach was a black arrow. Terror crossed Bunnymund's typical steely countenance at the sight of the wound. There was something different about this attack from others he had seen. This arrow reeked of darkness. It didn't disintegrate on impact like it had on the Sand Man. It remained there, pierced through the young winter spirit's blood-soaked abdomen. Bunnymund was aware of the type of power that Pitch possessed, but never did he think such a destructive power would be used against a Guardian ever again like this.

The arrow was flooding poison into Jack's body. He had to get it removed. The only question was how much additional harm that might do if he did.

Revealing the fear that Bunnymund felt would only terrify Jack more, and Bunnymund could not afford for him to fear. It would have been what Pitch wanted. More fear to feast upon like a parasite with an unquenchable thirst.

"Jack," Bunnymund told him, holding him upright now. He mentally kicked himself, angry that he hadn't been able to control the quavering in his voice. Angry that he had been too late to stop this from happening. "You'll be fine, alright? I'm taking you to North. Don't worry."

"...wait," Jack told him. The first words he had spoken since he had seen him. His face tightened suddenly. Hearing his voice was chilling. Never had Bunnymund heard Jack sound so young.

"I have to," was all Bunnymund replied. He put his arms around him then and when Jack gave no further sign of protest, he lifted him out of the river.

#

Jack Frost was writing in pain.

He was on the floor of North's fortress. The once blue hoodie now stained dark red and the patches of crimson were growing larger by the second. There was a moment when North could not even grasp what he was seeing, because Guardians and Spirits were not supposed to bleed like this. They shouldn't bleed at all.

Jack's breath hitched in this throat. At the young winter spirit's pained gasp, Tooth hovered over him and placed her hand on the side of his neck. In response, Jack's glazed-over blue ices rolled up to meet hers.

The decision came to North quickly. "I'm going to pull it out," he said.

Jack's mouth opened and he struggled to breathe for a moment before rasping out one word that was so quiet, it could have been easily missed. Yet Bunnymund heard and his heart lurched into this throat.

"_...don't."_

The Guardian was up and by the boy's side in an instant.

"It's going to okay, Jack. Just hang in there." However, he knew what all the other Guardians knew. It was far from okay and by the way Jack was looking at him, he already knew it too.

North gripped the black arrow with his gloved hand. He regarded the young Guardian for a moment. There was frost on his eyelashes, giving him a soft look that made his calm, pale face look almost angelic. North swallowed hard. "Hold him," he ordered the others. He could not risk Jack thrashing.

Then his fist took hold of the impaled arrow just above the creased, blood-soaked sweatshirt where it entered him.

Tooth pinned Jack's left arm to the floor, leaving Bunnymund to secure his other arm and Sandy to hold his legs. "Be careful," she said.

North's face relaxed a little and he nodded, turning back to his task. He took a deep breath, then another. Then he gritted his teeth and pulled.

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**A/N:** Like it? Hate it? Let me know in your review. I'd love to hear from you either way!


	2. Chapter II

**A/N**: I read and treasured every bit of critique I received so thank you all! Just so everyone knows, this began as something of an experimental piece. I wanted to write something either incredibly fluffy or something exceptionally dark. Obviously, I chose the latter. One of these days I'll have to go back and write something very full of fluff to make up for this.

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_"It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses." — Colette_

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Extracting the arrow was more difficult than North had been expecting. The worst part of it was Jack hardly made a sound as it was being removed. The only sign of life was the slight up and down motion of the young winter spirit's chest.

The earsplitting cries the Tooth fairy had been expecting never came. Jack's mouth was open but he did not scream. A strangled gurgling noise escaped his throat instead. Tooth stared as blood pooled into his mouth and spilled to the floor, smearing the wooden floors beneath them with blood as red and raw as crushed roses. Awful tremors continued to wrack his frail body and she was helpless to make it stop.

All Tooth could do was smooth out a crease in Jack's sleeve, trying to distract herself from holding him down and bearing witness to his agony. With her other hand, she kept his hand pinned to the floor as North ordered. Holding him still was proving difficult. Despite her efforts, he still struggled to yank his arm out of her grasp. If Tooth had allowed him, he could inadvertently cause more harm to himself than good. So Tooth retaliated by tightening her fingers around Jack's hand even more firmly, trying to steady him as if doing so might soothe his suffering.

Her eyes remained on Jack whom stared in her direction with eyes wide open yet seeing nothing. His gaze drifted past her as if he was looking at something far beyond her.

Beads of sweat formed across his hairline and Tooth was compelled to brush the disheveled, fallen hair off his face. When she did, the touch of his forehead made her recoil. Jack was warm and she had never known the young winter spirit to feel quite _this_ warm. He breathed sharply as if there wasn't enough air in the room to fill his lungs anymore.

"How could we have let this happen?" Tooth asked. The question had not been directed to anyone in particular, but her eyes lifted from Jack to the Guardian kneeling directly in front of her. Bunnymund. "You knew he couldn't take on Pitch by himself," she said. "Didn't you receive North's signal? He warned you Pitch was there! You were supposed to be there to help him!"

There was nothing that Bunnymund had to say toward Tooth's misdirected accusation. She was frightened and angry. He understood that and there was nothing she could do right now — nothing any of them could possible do right now except vent their frustration. That was all Tooth was doing and once she realized it, her voice thinned. "I didn't mean that," she said.

"There's no need to start passing blame around," North told her through his clenched jaw. His grip was still held firmly around the lodged arrow. "Pitch caught us all with our guard down. We all got the warning and Bunnymund got to him faster than any of us could. There's nothing more we could have done."

North could not bear looking at Jack anymore. His focus was strictly on the arrow now. He had successfully pulled most of it out but a good portion of the arrow was still lodged inside his abdomen. North moved his gloved hand down the length of the arrow still penetrating Jack's body. Blood that covered the arrow was beginning to soak into his glove.

Then North took another deep breath and gave it everything he had, tearing the arrow out of him with one final jerk. The moment the arrow was extracted, it crumbled in North's grasp. It deteriorated into a heap of black sand.

A single shout finally burst from Jack and he closed his mouth abruptly, struggling to stifle his screaming. His back arched off the bloodstained floor. He thrashed his head side to side and now Tooth was really starting to panic because Jack suddenly seemed to be in more pain that he had before. She wrapped Jack's hand around hers and stroked the back of his hand, drawing her attention down to his fingers. Something was very wrong. She turned Jack's hand facing up and gasped.

The veins in his wrist were _black_.

Bunnymund, who still held Jack's other hand, immediately inspected the other side of his wrist once he noticed. He lifted the sleeve of Jack's hoodie further up his arm. Dread dropped into the pit of his stomach. The veins that scrawled up the entire length of the boy's arm were visible and black as ink.

"What's wrong with him?" he demanded.

There was only silence.

Jack continued to bleed profusely from the gaping hole in his abdomen and not knowing what else to do, Bunnymund forced his paw over the open gash in Jack's stomach, trying to compress the wound. He called out to him. "Oy! Jack, can you hear me?"

Jack didn't answer. He didn't even acknowledge that he had heard him. His back collapsed back against the floor and his relentless thrashing gradually stilled. He didn't seem to even have the energy anymore and Bunnymund knew that was not a good sign.

"Fight it, Frostbite," he told him.

"Jack," Tooth said, squeezing her hands around his even tighter but to her horror, she could feel his hand fall limp.

The Sand Man turned his gaze toward Jack with an expression that was completely indecipherable. He shook his head.

"Stand back!" North ordered. "All of you."

Tooth and Sandy sunk back but Bunnymund did not move. His paw remained firmly in place over Jack's stomach and he did not even glance in North's direction, causing the rest of the Guardians to all wonder if he had even heard North's command but was simply choosing to ignore it.

North didn't find a need to repeat himself however. There was enough space to fully assess Jack's condition and that would be enough for what he needed to see. Not that it mattered. It only confirmed in North's mind what he had been expecting though he hoped he had been wrong.

"That darkness now coursing through his veins is as dangerous as any deadly poison would be on a mortal person." He attempted to articulate his words in a way that would ease the shock of what he was about to say. "Without the proper help, he won't make it. There's darkness coursing through his veins and if we do nothing, he will inevitably succumb to the effects."

"There must be something we can do," Tooth said, not wanting to think what could happen to Jack if they didn't. Then an unanticipated thought crossed her mind.

How did she not see it before?

"Jack's staff," she realized frantically. "Where is it?"

Bunnymund blinked. Then the absolute horror struck him. Memory of the incident by the river came rushing back. It was true. Jack was without his staff. Back at the river, Jack had asked him to wait yet Bunnymund had dismissed it. _Of course._ Jack had been trying to tell him to wait because he had known his staff was gone. Regrettably, Bunnymund had ignored him.

"It must be back at that river," Bunnymund told her. He hadn't been thinking clearly after Jack had been impaled by the arrow. As a matter of fact, he wasn't thinking clearly now when he announced, "I'll go get it."

Most likely Jack's staff was in Pitch's possession, but he didn't say that part to the others.

"You'll do no such thing," North stopped him. "If it's even still back there, it'd surely be a trap for any one of us."

But Bunnymund already staggered to his feet. He finally lifted his paw from Jack's abdomen. Blood stained its fur where he had tried to control the bleeding. He was already preparing to open a portal tunneling from North's fortress back to the river. "I'll make it quick," he said, completely ignoring North's previous order. Again.

North crossed his arms over his chest and intercepted Bunnymund, barring him from crossing over into his newly formed portal. "No."

Tension began to fill the room and Sandy floated back several feet. Tooth leapt to her feet and placed herself firmly between the two Guardians. "Enough!" she said. "Both of you."

None of them were by Jack's side any longer except the Sand Man, who kept a steadfast watch on Jack's rapidly worsening condition. If none of them acted now, it really would be too late for him. Golden sand rustled impatiently around Sandy. They had to get their act together _fast_ but fear for Jack's life had already clouded their sense to rationalize and reason.

"Bunny, _help me_, I can't –," Jack choked on his words. It was enough to silence everyone in the room. His entire body was shaking and the black veins weaving up his arms were pulsating. The protruding veins spread to his neck and were now running alongside the length of his face, stopping short at his temples. Suddenly his mouth closed and he clenched his eyes shut.

Why Jack had chosen to call out to him, Bunnymund did not know. But he rushed to Jack's side in an instant in a desperate attempt to stop whatever was happening. Tears were running freely from the corners of Jack's tightly closed eyes, dripping down his face and onto the floor beneath him, mixing with his already spilled blood. It was the most frustrating thing in the world to want to stop someone's suffering and being absolutely helpless to do so.

"You're going to be fine," Bunnymund told him. "I'll make sure of it."

Jack looked over at him vaguely. His eyes opened yet the spirited blue glow that usually gleamed behind them was gone. Then his eyes fluttered and closed.

Nothing but silence remained.

The young winter spirit was deathly still, his lips slightly parted with his arms lying limp at his sides, eyes parted open but seeing nothing. Bunnymund swallowed hard and placed a steady paw over Jack's chest, his throat closing up when he no longer felt the once rising and falling motion that had once been there.

Bunnymund tried to swallow back his fear but it came up again in a frigid block that made his throat ache and his eyes sting. There was no way. He refused to believe it. It simply could not be possible.

Jack wasn't breathing.

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_Please review!_


	3. Chapter III

**A/N:** Well, this has been fun. Please know that I appreciate all of you reviewers, alert-ers, favorite-ers and anyone else out there reading this. You all make writing this worthwhile. But as soon as this is done, I must get back to doing more productive things. Like work. And college exams. And sleep. Yes, _sleep_. There is something seriously wrong with my priorities here but I hope you all enjoy the consequences of my actions anyway.

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_I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring. __- Liz Armbruster_

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Jack had never tried hot chocolate before, although he thought he might enjoy it if did.

He had seen enough children drink it that he could only imagine what it tasted like. It always seemed better with a handful of marshmallows sprinkled on top because the soft candy would melt slightly and create a sweet, milky foam on top that when sipped, never failed to fill those same children with something warm enough to chase away the winter cold.

Hot chocolate had to be good though because it was usually enough to draw children away from even Jack's best snowball fights and under the warming glow of christmas lights instead.

But when Jack finally tried this delectable drink for himself, he discovered the taste was nothing extraordinary. It was like swallowing muddy, hot water.

That was the thing about dreaming.

The thing about a dream was how someone could exist in a world so similar to their ordinary one. It was as painless as escaping into a fantasy world, except one that was so impossibly real it was difficult to remember what was real or what was not.

And when you finally reached that point in your dream where you realized that everything you were experiencing had only been a dream, waking was not always easy because to discard a fantasy world where you weren't suffering was often too hard to leave behind.

What reason did Jack Frost possibly have to abandon that comfort?

This fantasy of drinking hot chocolate, Jack knew, was not a real one. He had never had it in reality so how could he possibly know its taste?

It was enough of an incentive to want to wake up and once Jack understood he was only dreaming, the fantasy world quickly lost its appeal. Realization hit him.

_Jack!_

Someone was calling out to him.

#

"Jack!"

Tooth listened to Bunnymund call Jack's name and when he called his name a second time, she cringed, trying to ignore the desperation in his voice. But it was impossible to ignore. She could not bring herself to look at either of them. Instead she swallowed hard and tried to breathe evenly.

_Be rational, Tooth. Be calm. Think. Come on, think..._

Jack was immortal like they rest of them, was he not? It was not possible for a Guardian to be bled dry or to be killed by other ordinary means. She refused to believe it. And yet she had just bared witness to what vibrant life had once been Jack's spirit be violently torn out of him.

"Tooth," North drew her attention around. "Look."

The sound of North's voice startled her and she quickly turned. The Sand Man was hovering close. A stream of golden sand circled around Jack's immobile body.

Which meant Jack was dreaming and if he was dreaming that meant he had to be...

"He's alive!" she realized, and darted toward him. A knot caught in her throat. Something was still very wrong. The black veins crawling across Jack's body were undeniably more visible.

"Barely," Bunnymund reinforced to her. "He's not waking up."

Sandy continued to shake another wave of golden sand over Jack's eyes, attempting to ward off the nightmares trying to penetrate his current dreams. Jack's eyes remained eerily parted, revealing a dim emptiness under his eyelids that was reminiscent of stale water.

"His staff," Bunnymund reminded everyone. In his mind, he was already bracing himself for an encounter with Pitch. Actually, Bunnymund would prefer it this way. Confronting Pitch would be a necessary step toward correcting the wrong he had done against the young winter spirit, who remained in a comatose state.

Jack's breaths came in small doses, thready and weak. The breathing was barely noticeable.

Bunnymund eventually stepped away and Tooth caught sight of the blood matting his fur. The sight of Jack's blood on him made her ill. She flew to stand beside Bunnymund then. "You're leaving?"

"Well there's no way I'm staying here and doing nothing."

"I'm going with you."

Bunnymund dropped his jaw in protest, but decided against it. By the tone of her voice, it wasn't something to be argued. She was coming with him.

"Keep watch over him," Bunnymund instructed North and Sandy. Not that they needed to be told, but as circumstances would have it, they had been elected to stay behind. "If _anything_ changes about his condition, let us know. Got it?"

Sandy nodded in acknowledgment and North knew if he objected now, it would only jeopardize Jack's survival. "Go," he said.

That was all the permission Bunnymund needed to reopen his portal and leap through with Tooth, flying close behind.

#

"So it begins."

Pitch voiced the statement out loud to no one in particular, with the exception to Jack Frost whom he knew without a doubt could hear him. He could feel the boy succumbing to the effects of his poison — _his_ _essence_ — and it would only be a matter of time before his darkness completely consumed him.

A smile curled the corners of his mouth then. Pitch remained in his stronghold, running a crooked, skeletal finger across the mortar melding together heavy stone surrounding his domain.

The beauty of being an entity of darkness was it allowed him omniscient viewing of any part of the world currently enshrouded in shadow and after the sun went down, the whole world became cast into it. As long as the moon avoided casting light across his darkened haven, the world became his sanctuary by nightfall.

In his other hand, Pitch dragged Jack staff across the ground, scratching the floor of his stronghold with an empty, hollow screech.

The Guardians were coming for him, Pitch knew. It was inevitable. The only question remaining was what their plan would be to stop him. All Pitch needed was time. Time would ultimately be Jack's undoing.

They, on the other hand, needed something more. What they needed was a cure to reverse the poisonous effects rapidly eating away at Jack's existence. All Pitch needed to do was stall them. It would be easy. The events of tonight had gone by much _too easily_. Everything was going according to plan. Pitch laughed.

"Let them try to stop it."

#

"There's something you're not telling me," Tooth finally said to Bunnymund once they were alone by the river. After having scoured the river banks, Tooth was hovering over the river itself. The depth was low enough that she could reach the bottom of the riverbed only to have the icy water submerge her arm only as far as to her elbow. If the staff was here, surely she would have seen it by now.

"What more do you need to know!" Bunnymund demanded. "You need me to tell you an apology, is that it? You want me to admit that this is because of me? That I let this happen. That it's my fault."

Tooth was very quiet. None of that had been in her mind, but the fact that Bunnymund was suspecting her of saying it made her realize that whether he wanted to admit it or not, Bunnymund was blaming himself for what happened to Jack

"Listen to me. It's not your fault," she said. "What I was going to say was I suspect you know where Jack's staff _really_ is. Because it's not here."

There was no doubt in his mind about it now. "Pitch," he told her finally. "He must have it. Either we wait for him to come to us or we go to him and I doubt he will be the one to come to us. If we go after him, we'll be confronting him on _his_ terms and the chance we walk into a trap will be likely."

"Open a portal tunnel just for me then. I'll go first," Tooth said.

"Not happening."

"Yes it is," Tooth argued. "You stay here. Wait a few minutes. Then come after me. It'd be better to avoid both of us walking into the same trap, if there's one at all."

Bunnymund crossed his arms over his chest. He withdrew a boomerang and tapped it impatiently against his arm, not happy at all with this this arrangement but circumstances were less than ideal and their plans were limited.

"Fine," he said.

He reluctantly agreed and opened a portal for her. There was nothing on the other side but pitch black and Tooth hovered in front of the portal, inspecting what was on the other side. She hesitated.

"Want me to go first?"

"No," Tooth insisted.

Then she disappeared to the other side, leaving Bunnymund alone still standing in the river. He would give Tooth no longer than a minute before he went after her. The idea of parting with her for even that long to confront Pitch alone was a thought that did not sit well with him at all.

#

Trouble began almost immediately following Bunnymund's and Tooth's departure.

The Sand Man furrowed his brow and attempted to spread an additional wave of golden sand across Jack's eyes but his effort was proving futile. Despite his best ability, he watched powerlessly as the delicate gold dust around Jack's eyes shifted violently and morphed into course, black sand.

He was helpless to stop the nightmare that was materializing and in that moment, the Sand Man saw into Jack's dreams.

All he could see was an endless ocean of dark water.

Jack was drowning.

There was no land in sight. Jack kicked desperately to tread through the deadly liquid and stay afloat, but all he managed to do was flail. With every second it became harder to resist the temptation for him to stop struggling and sink below the surface. Jack took gasping breaths, trying to latch on to something, _anything_, but there was nothing to save him.

He couldn't scream because that would be a waste of precious air. He resisted with unwavering determination but a voice in the back of Jack's mind was whispering to him that maybe this was pointless. Maybe giving in to the inevitable and relaxing would make the end a little less painless...

Sandy closed his eyes. He could no longer tolerate to watch the nightmare as it tortured and slowly consumed the young winter spirit.

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_A/N: I realize this was a less intense chapter, but it was necessary. Think of it as a bracer for the chapter about to come. Thoughts? Rants? Please tell me all about it!_


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